Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 August 2013 09:07
Published on Wednesday, 07 August 2013 09:07
Written by Al Stover

The Roosevelt County Commissioners held a meeting Aug. 1 to approve resolutions and business.

The commissioners began the meeting by approving the minutes for the meetings that took place in month of July. They also approved the claims for July 18, 2013, which came to the amount of $63,580.92. Commissioner Gary Macdonald said he was “shocked to see it that low.”

They also approved the claims and payroll, which came to the amount of $1,638,666.48, for the period from June 1 to June 30.

In regards to administrative issues, the commissioners approved Resolution No. 2014-2, which will allow the commissioners to set salaries for elected officials and Resolution No. 2014-3, which allows the commissioners to set the salary for the county attorney and the deputy county attorney. They also passed a Memoriam of Understanding for the Deadman Communication Site, located at 174 Tower Hill Road, within McCone County.

Macdonald said the equipment will be supplied by the Border Interoperability Demonstration Project grant.

“We get a lot of extra equipment out of it,” Macdonald said. “It will help out with fleet mapping.”

The equipment will be installed by Flathead County or its designee and all equipment will be installed according to accepted industry standards.

In the matters of business, the commissioners rehired Bernadine Popp as a substitute cook for the Bainville Senior Center. They also made a motion to approve the pay raise of Carlos Garcia, who works as a 911 dispatcher.

Macdonald asked about Garcia’s raise and Brenda Redfield, administrative assistant to the Roosevelt County Commissioners, said Garcia had been overlooked at the time of anniversary date of employment back in April. She also said she did not know if they failed to inform Garcia or if Garcia missed it himself. Commissioner Duane Nygaard said he did not know whose responsibility it was to notify Garcia about the pay raise and Macdonald said it was the department’s job to do that.

The business matter that raised the most discussion was the move of Traci Kjelshus to full-time office manager/4H assistant with an extra eight hours a week. Nygaard motioned it for discussion.

Macdonald said that although it would make sense to have Kjelhsus move to full-time, because there have been times where the 4-H office had no one working to take phone calls, he asked if they were in danger of being overstaffed.

Ardis Oelkers, an agent at the Extension office, said they have been busy during the summer and needed another person because the summer brings more activities and workload. She also stressed that they have had the money in the budget to hire more people.

Kjelshus also said that because of the limited amount of people, they have had to answer the phone and take care of the people who come into the office, which leaves them without time to plan or teach people.

After the commissioners approved the motion to move Kjelshus to full time, Kjelshus and Oelkers thanked them.

The commissioners ended the meeting by approving the report of investments and pledged securities from the treasurer, which had been tabled from the previous meeting.